Posts tagged philanthropy
Top 10 Ways to Be Vancouver’s Greenest Family
Apr 15th
Two years ago I committed to “give” every day for one year. I did this to teach my 3 year old son the importance of giving and to inspire people to give more in their lives.
Two years later and only a few new posts after completing our 365give journey my husband and I have adopted two more children. Every moment of my day is now dedicated to giving back to my family.
This week VancouverMom wrote an article that has inspired me to find the time to write again. Along with Earth Day fast approaching- April 22, 2013 – this post is all about giving back to our planet. VancouverMom in partnership with SPUD.ca is looking for Vancouver’s Greenest Family. When you have a large family ( we are 7 plus 2 dogs) you have to consider the carbon footprint you make every day. We make choices in our family on a day to day basis to make a positive impact on the environment. After completing 365 “gives” I came to realization that many of our daily gives were giving back to the planet. We have started to teach our 2 year old many of these green lessons and our 1 year old will soon follow.
365give Top 10 Ways to Give Back to the Planet.
Just follow the link for a full post on each daily give and you too can change the world one day at a time.
1) Day 2: Saving the Planet One Step at a Time
Walk, walk and walk some more. We committed to being a one car family a long time ago. The one car we do have is an eco-friendly car (a 7 seater at that!) and we walk, bus and bike our way around our neighbourhood, to work and to school. This give will help you discover your carbon footprint by using alternative methods of transportation. We saved .52 tons of CO2 by just walking to complete our daily activities instead of driving. What about you?
My Bag and Me is still one of my son’s favourite stories and is fast becoming his younger brothers. This story is about a boy that brings a shopping bag to the grocery store and how it helps the planet one bag at a time. During our year of giving we brought bags with us shopping to Whole Foods. With every bag we bring and fill with groceries Whole Foods donates 10 cents to a local charity. We calculated a donation of over $50.00 that year and we helped the planet one bag at a time. Giving at it’s best!
3) Day 90: Out with the Old in with the New
I have 3 boys and I can only imagine the number of running shoes we will go through in the coming years. Not only have I kept my oldest son’s shoes to reuse for his younger brothers but when they are truly worn out including my own and my husbands we bring them to a Nike Store. Nike’s Reuse a Shoe Program turns old shoes into playing courts for kids to use again and again.
This green give featured a book called How to Reduce your Carbon Footprint: - 365 ways to save energy. I soon realized we were doing many of them. Find the Top 5 every day things my family has implemented including composting, recycling, reusing, energy conservation and more.
5) Day 167: Easy Solution to the Laundry Dilemma
I wish I lived somewhere that I could hang my laundry to dry outside but Vancouver happens to be a very wet place most of the year and my area of town does not allow laundry lines in your yard. I researched what my best alternative may be to do our families laundry as eco-friendly as possible. First step cold water washing and second the Laundry Ball. When you do up to 8 or 10 loads of laundry a week like we do this gadget really makes a difference. Read on how you can do your laundry with a little less guilt.
6) Day 173: Recycle, Reuse, Restore
I have a dirty secret. I like to garbage pick. I don’t mean dumpster diving for food but finding items for free that others have discarded and turning them into something usable. I shop almost exclusively at second hand stores for my children or on the Craigslist. I believe there is so much “stuff” already out there for kids that there is no need to by new all the time. But my true passion is finding an item that someone may have left outside their home with a sign “free” on it. I pick it up and restore it. I have done it again and again with furniture and toys. Just a little elbow grease and maybe a paint job and you have a brand new item. Take a look at the before and after pictures of a toy cabinet I still use to this day. You know the saying “someone else’s garbage is another’s treasure.”
7) Day 195: A Recipe for Giving Back to the Planet this Spring
My son Nicolas Building His Garden
This recipe is simple. It’s called grow your own food. You can do it in pots, in your garden, in your window sill – where every you can in your home. If you need the official recipe follow this give to see the impact growing your own food makes on the environment. If you can teach a child this environmentally friendly practice you will have made an impact on them for their life.
8) Day 208: Give to the Planet and Give to Charity
When you get on a roll to give every day you discover ways that can give not only once but twice in one act. Donating your bottles that can receive a deposit back is one simple and effective way to give. It gives to the planet by recycling and gives to charity by donating them. In one year alone we recycled over $150 worth of bottles, juice boxes, milk cartons and donated the money to charity. Take a look around your neighbourhood and see if their is a charity drop box you can give to.
If you have children in your life there are never enough activities to keep them busy on a rainy day. This idea came to us when I came across the site Be Straw Free. Did you know that over 500 million disposable straws are used every day? Enough to fill 46,400 large school buses a year. My son and I came up with a great way to use straws to create fun art projects. Take a look and see what other ideas you could come up with to reuse straws for creative good.
10) Day 246: Stop and Smell the Flowers:
This is an easy and fun way to teach your children – even at the ripe old age of three – the connection between our planet and keeping it clean. We are in full blossom in Vancouver right now so it’s time to get out and walk with your child. Stop and smell the flowers. While you are there pick up some garbage in your community at the same time. Smelling cherry blossoms and picking up someone’s stray plastic bag will remind you it’s worth keeping our planet clean and healthy.
Our environmentally friendly practices don’t stop here. There are many daily “gives” including water conservation, eating organic foods, saving electricity and more that we do every day. (Day 7, Day 10, Day 25, Day 159, Day 204, Day 222 and more) 365give was a great project for our family to inspire us to give in so many ways and giving back to our planet was one of our favourites. No matter how busy your family is teaching our children the value of being environmentally friendly has to be a priority.
A special thanks to VancouverMom for inspiring me to write about giving back to our planet and reminding our family of how we do give every day.
If you have any ideas you practice in your family please share them with us so we to can bring them into our daily lives.
The Secret to Raising a Billion Dollars
Apr 4th
Image by Visual Paradox
How do you raise a billion dollars for people and organizations
in need around the world?
A great question for so many people that are raising funds every day to give back to the world. What if you had a secret recipe that would change the world and raise billions of dollars along the way? It’s been done and they all started with the same ingredient.
- Bill Gates has done it.
- Bill Clinton has done it.
- Bono has done it.
- The United Way has done it.
- The Salvation Army has done it.
The secret is simple – it all starts with $1.00 and the inspiration to change the world.
I recently met Mike Zserdin founder and writer of the Generosity Manifesto and the Change Crew via Twitter. At 365give we like to share stories of people that are doing their part to create change in the world. Mike has a goal to raise a few billion dollars. Mike started his giving journey by writing the Generosity Manifesto to encourage and inspire people to give more in their lives.
“I have started by working with friends to give away a few billion dollars. I think money helps advance world change. My hope is that the manifesto empowers and encourages people to believe that (most of us) have a little extra to give and those little, extra gifts make a difference. I grew up. I hit my 40s and realized my life is half over. I watched a close friend die and others grow old. Each of them encouraged me to live for something bigger than myself. I then came across a TED Theme, What The World Needs Now and read Seth Godin’s compilation of essays, What Matters Now. And, and then saw a headline by Chris Brogan, We Could Do So Much More…I began asking myself these very questions. I realized I couldn’t do everything but, I knew I could do a little more. As a result, my family and I started giving a little more. We realized that we have enough to give a little more. Since then, we’ve begun feeding kids in Africa for $50 a year, then traveling there to see first hand what’s wrong and right in that part of the world. In one word, the catalyst was Perspective. When we see what a little gift does and began to realize how much we have it made it easy to give a little more.”
Mike is not making it complicated or an impossible dream – he is asking friends and family to be more generous in their lives. He is encouraging people to give what they can but give a little more. Mike is taking one step at a time starting with his Generosity Manifesto to help people realize the positive effects of giving. It’s a free online book that will take just a few minutes of your time to read. It will inspire you to give more and feel happier in your life. 365give shares a similar philosophy that is featured in the book. I call it the ripple effect and Mike calls it the Boomerang Effect.
The Boomerang Effect–You Get What You Give: An excerpt from the Generosity Manifesto 
There is truth in the seemingly absurd notion that we can pay it forward.
Jeff Goins observes, “The paradox of life is the more money you give, the more you get.” His article “ What You Get From Giving: The Paradox of Generosity” is a must read. Jeff claims that giving is good for you and me. He’s right.
Like Jeff, some of you have experienced the boomerang effect of generosity—the more good you throw out, the more comes back. Even science supports the boomerang effect. Generous people are happier, skinnier, and more productive. Jeff says, “There are legitimate health, business, and psychological one is this: it gives meaning to life.”
As it turns out, practicing generosity is a key to getting all we really want. Things such as genuine smiles, greater peace, community, lower blood pressure, a sense of accomplishment, and even the opportunity to change the world.
Giving also kicks depression in the teeth.
You get what you give. Give to change another’s story and you will be transformed.
Many of us are looking for that magic recipe to raise money for the charities we love and stand behind. Maybe this is the key – imagine a billion dollars and start raising it $1.00 at a time. Find your inspiration to change the world. Leave a comment and share your story with 365give – just maybe it will inspire one other person to give more today.
Become a Philanthropist in Just One Click (It’s Free!)
Dec 7th
So you want to give more but don’t have the extra money or time.
Let 365give help you find your inner philanthropist with just a click.
Here is the perfect way for you to become the philanthropist you have always wanted to be and is won’t cost you a dime or time. Just a click and you can be part of the Hanes Sock Drive by providing the Salvation Army with socks for a person in need this holiday season.
The goal is big – 250,000 by December 15th so you need to click right now. One click = one pair of socks donated by Hanes. No time, no money. Embrace your inner philanthropist and give today!
Do you have an easy way to become a philanthropist we can share with the world? Leave us a comment or send us a Tweet and we will share the giving! Happy Holidays!
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